BILL NUMBER: S350A
SPONSOR: RIVERA
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to the artificial
hydration and nutrition decision standard
 
PURPOSE:
Changes the default standard on statutory health proxy forms regarding
life-sustaining treatment standards.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends subdivision 4 of section 2980 of the Public Health Law
(PHL), as it relates to the term health care, to include hydration and
nutrition as a form of treatment, service, or procedure that is
performed to diagnose or treat an individual's physical or mental condi-
tion.
Section 2 amends the fourth undesignated paragraph of paragraph (d) of
subdivision 5 of section 2981 of PHL, as it relates to the contents and
form of health proxy, to allow the principal to state their wishes
regarding withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, includ-
ing hydration and nutrition, to guide their agent's decisions.
Section 3 amends subdivision 2 of section 2982 of PHL, as it relates to
decision-making standards, to remove language that takes away the
agent's authority to make decisions regarding artificial nutrition and
hydration if the principal's wishes are not reasonably known and cannot
be reasonably ascertained.
Section 4 provides the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill makes the decision-making standard for an agent under the
Health Care Proxy Law similar to the standard for a surrogate under the
Family Health Care Decisions Act (FHCDA). Specifically, the FHCDA
provides that a surrogate must make decisions about life-sustaining
treatment, including artificial nutrition and hydration, based on the
patient's wishes or, if the patient's wishes are not reasonably known,
based on the patient's best interests. In contrast, the 1990 Health Care
Proxy Law allows the patient's designated agent to make decisions about
artificial nutrition and hydration only if the decision is based on the
patient's reasonably known wishes and not if the decision is based on
the patient's best interests. There is little basis for this disparity
in standards. Moreover, the special rule for decisions about artificial
nutrition and hydration in the Health Care Proxy Law has been a source
of enduring confusion and misinterpretation.
This amendment would make the FHCDA standard, with its careful defi-
nition of "best interests" that now applies to decisions made by surro-
gates, applicable to decisions by health care agents.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2013-14: S7154A (Hannon)/A95668 Rosenthal
2015-16: S4794 (Hannon)/A674 Rosenthal
2019-20: S5939 Rivera/A730A Rosenthal L
2021-22: S4967 Rivera/A2634 Rosenthal L
2023-24: S2777 Rivera/A1448 Rosenthal L
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill shall take effect ninety days after the date on which this act
shall have become a law.

Statutes affected:
S350: 2980 public health law, 2980(4) public health law, 2981 public health law, 2981(5) public health law, 2982 public health law, 2982(2) public health law
S350A: 2980 public health law, 2980(4) public health law, 2981 public health law, 2981(5) public health law, 2982 public health law, 2982(2) public health law